Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions officials of his Department have had with representatives of (a) trade unions and (b) civil society groups on labour rights (i) protections and (ii) violations in supply chains.

As part of his annual strategy 2018/19, the former Director of Labour Market Enforcement - Sir David Metcalf – recommended that the Government introduce joint responsibility to encourage the top of the chain to take an active role to tackle labour market breaches through their supply chain. Sir David also recommended that provisions should be made to enable the temporary embargo of “hot goods” to disrupt supply chain activity where significant non-compliance is found.

The Government consulted on these recommendations as part of a wider consultation on the creation of a new Single Enforcement Body for employment rights. During the consultation period, officials from the Department discussed labour market breaches in supply chains with a range of representatives of trade unions and civil society groups. This included a dedicated roundtable to discuss non-compliance in supply chains, and a meeting with members of the Modern Slavery Strategy Implementation Group to further discuss the topic. These discussions have been of great value and the Government response to the consultation will be published in due course.